For more than a generation, governments, businesses and communities across the globe have been grappling with the issues of sustainable development, wrestling with the challenges of greater efficiently and equitably providing for a rapidly growing human population, while also leaving a smaller physical impact on the environment.

Managing the human relationship with the natural world has become one of the most complex and challenging issues of our time, requiring increased investment in education, research and development, technology and professional standards. It also increasingly requires adjustments involving economic reform, social behavioural and values change. After a generation of Environmental Protection Agencies and environmental managers, our relationship with the natural systems of the Earth still remains unbalanced and unsustainable - as is confirmed by all major environmental indicators.

So just how does the modern environmental professional fit within this complexity? What is it about the next 20 years that will be different from past decades which have seen the rise of environmental managerialism & cleaner technologies-but also greater environmental impacts through exponential growth in production & consumption? Will the questions be different for tomorrow's environmental manager? What will be the shaping influences on the demands of corporations & communities needing the services of environmental professionals? What have we learned that will endure into the future, in shaping the professional management of the human-nature relationship?

Today the focus of the environmental manager can be in fields as diverse & increasingly complex as food and energy security, climate change, marine and waterways degradation, industrial pollution, community engagement and inter-sectoral resource conflict between farmers and miners. As we approach the milestone of celebrating the first 25 years of our organisation, we will challenge members and participants to stop, consider & explore:

·         what about the environment profession needs to change to ensure continuing professional relevance to delivering value & shaping the future;

• New perspectives coming from the next generation of Australians who have an important stake in the future;
• Better ways to engage the community & respond to emerging issues that, for resolution, require higher levels of input from social sciences;
• The lessons of more than 20 yrs of active professional development in environment management both for members, their clients & communities;
• The implications of making sustainability the crucial performance determinant in assessing the professional role of the EIANZ member.

Click here for more information on how to be involved with this thought provoking and challenging event or visit www.eianz.org.

Click here to download the Registration Brochure.

Keynote Sessions:
At the crossroads: Lessons of environmental protection and the challenges for the environmental profession in the decades ahead.
Environmental Professionals: Complexity in translating policy into practice.
Low Carbon Future-Making economics & technology work for effective transformation.
Environmental Professionals-Science into practice through community engagement.